“Materialism is a conviction based not upon evidence or logic but upon what Carl Sagan (speaking of another kind of faith) called a ‘deep-seated need to believe.’ Considered purely as a rational philosophy, it has little to recommend it; but as an emotional sedative, what Czeslaw Milosz liked to call the opiate of unbelief, it offers a refuge from so many elaborate perplexities, so many arduous spiritual exertions, so many trying intellectual and moral problems, so many exhausting expressions of hope or fear, charity or remorse. In this sense, it should be classified as one of those religions of consolation whose purpose is not to engage the mind or will with the mysteries of being but merely to provide a palliative for existential grievances and private disappointments. Popular atheism is not a philosophy but a therapy.”
―David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss
Note: The mention of Milosz refers to this quote.
Gladsome Lights 
Substitute ‘modernity’ for ‘materialism’ and the passage works equally well.
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How interesting! This can be the only explanation for why so many people absolutely will not hear another point of view different from their own, no matter how much evidence there is to support it. No matter how little evidence there is to support their beliefs. The hostility against that other view is sometimes astounding.
Mattias Desmet speaks of “mass formation”, and says the more highly educated ones are more prone to it.
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